Display card



Nov. 20, 1956 w cou 2,771,188 I DISPLAY CARD Filed Nov. 1, 1954 MLLIAM El EUULTER (Ittomeg I United States Patent DISPLAY CARD William B. Coulter, Southport, Conn., assignor to Manufacturers Box Company, Inc., Bridgeport, Conn, a corporation of Connecticut Application November 1, 1954, Serial No. 465,863

4 Claims. (Cl. 20675) The present invention relates to display cards and more particularly to the type of display oa-rd upon which silverware or the like is mounted.

One of the objects of the present invention is to provide such a display ca-rd upon which the silverware or the like may be firmly retained by unique locking or gripping means.

' A further object is to provide such a display card which is readily adapted to being snugly positioned in a display box, in which the pieces of silverware may be shipped or handled without danger of damage by contact with one another.

According to the present invention, cards are provided for displaying pieces of silverware or similar articles having handle and head portions joined by a neck portion, such as forks and spoon-s. The form of such articles is such that the handle and head portions lie at opposite sides of a flat plane and the connecting neck portion traverses such plane. The cards are provided with means therein whereby when a handle of a piece of silverware is turned 90 from its normal position, it may be received through the card, and means whereby when the neck portion of a piece is reached the piece may be rotated to the normal position, in which position the piece may be firmly held at its neck portion.

Preferable means for so retaining each piece ofsilverware at its neck portion is a T-slot, and adjacent each 1 T-slot is a U-shaped out which defines a tab bendable from the plane .of the card to support the under side of the head of the piece and provide an opening defined by the U-sliaped cut in which the head is received and displayed.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent from a consideration of the following detailed description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings wherein a satisfactory embodiment of the invention is shown. However, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the details disclosed but includes all such variations and modifications as fall within the spirit of the invention and the scope of the appended claims.

In the drawing:

Fig. 1 is a plan view of the card;

Fig. 2 is a plan view of the card with pieces of silverware in position therein ready to be positioned in a carton;

'Fig. 3 is a section on line 33 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is a perspective view of the display carton having the card positioned therein;

Fig. 5 is a perspective view illustrating the first step in mounting a piece of silverware on a card;

'Fig. 6 is a perspective view illustrating the second step in mounting a piece of silverware on a card;

Fig. 7 illustrates the front of a card and the final position of the piece mounted on the card; and

Fig. 8 is a fragmentary plan view of the card having a modified form of T-slot.

According to the invention, a rectangular cardboard ice card 0 for displaying pieces of silverware S, such as spoons, forks and knives, is provided. The horizontal and vertical edges 10 and '11 of the card are freely bendable upwardly and downwardly in a vertical plane, and preferably provide flanged edges substantially perpendicular to the normal plane of the card. The bend-ability of the edges may be facilitated by removing the corner portions and scoring the card, as at 12, along lines parallel to its horizontal edges, which edges are bent upward and partially separating the edges at 12a along lines parallel to its vertical edges, which edges are bent down. The c'ard is provided with a plurality of means for holding and displaying a plurality of articles, each along a longitudinal line between the ends of the card, the longitudinal line for the left hand fork, as shown in Fig. 2, being coincident to the section indicating line 3-45, Each such means comprises a T slot 1 3 at an intermediate point of such longitudinal line having a vertical stem portion 14 aligned with said line and a horizontal transverse top portion '15. The slot isadapted to receive the neck portion '19 of the article S, and theportion of the card at the upper side of the slot constitutes a head receiving portion, while the port-ion at the lower side constitutes a handle receiving portion. The head receiving portion is provided in centrally alignedrelation withsaid longitudinal line with a u shaped cut 16 substantially conform ing to the outline shape of thehead 20 of the articles, and which defines a tab 17 bendable rearwardly'iro'm the plane of the card about a transverse hinge line 17a extending across the open end of the cut. The closed end of the cut is disposed adjacentto and is longitudi nally spaced from the top of the T-slot to provide an unbroken band 18 between the-cut and the slot which is adapted to overlie and hold the neck portion 19 of the article, as will pre-sently'more fully appear. The tabs 17 are designed to beheld against the underside of the heads 20 of the silverware by a transparent flexible wrapping material 21, such ascellophane, whichiis Wrapped about the card, while the flangeded-ges '10 and-11 are perpendicular to the normal plane thereof; p

In installing the individual pieces of silverware (Figs. 5-7) which have substantially fiat'handles and the widths of which taper inwardly from their outside edge totheii' neck portion, the handle of the piece is turned vertically, or from its normal position, and slid 'through"'th e vertical portion 14 'ot-the'T-slo t from the rear Drama.

When the neck portion 19 of the piece is reached, if necessary, it is slid up to the junction of the horizontal and vertical portions of the T-slot, where it is rotated to the normal position. Because of the relative narrowness of the neck portion and the fact that there is less rigidity in the card at the junction of the T zf-orming slots, the piece may be easily rotated. During such operation the tab 17 is bent rearwardly from the cut 16, as shown in Fig. 6, to allow the head 20 to swing into the opening defined by the cut 16 upon bending of the tab about the hinge line 17a. The head is thereupon moved into the opening where it is held through engagement of the tab with its under side, as shown in Fig. 3.

Thereafter a transparent wrapper, such as cellophane, is wrapped around the card, holding the tabs against the underside of the heads to thereby aid in supporting the piece in a substantially horizontal plane. A card so wrapped may then be easily slipped into a display car ton B of suitable dimension. A transparent wrapper, such as cellophane, may, if desired, be wrapped around the carton B, in which case the wrapper would preferably not be provided around the card.

In Fig. 8 there is illustrated a modified form of the invention in which the T-slot 131: comprises a vertical stem portion 14a and a hole 15a at the upper end of the stem portion 14a of a diameter substantially correspondi-ng to the width of the neck portion 19' of the piece of silverware or the like to be mounted. In operation the handle of the piece is engaged through the stem portion 14a from the back, as seen in Figs. -7, and the neck portion is slid upwardly into the hole 15a where it is turned :90 into its normal position, the head of the piece being .then engaged within the opening defined Ebyjthe-cut 16 above the tab 17.v

The present invention has been found particularly suited for shipping and displaying a portion of a set, such as a place setting or the like, and in this regard it should be noted that in the drawin-gs the mounting means of the invention are provided in the card for mounting a dessert and dinnerwork and teaspoon. .In order to complete the set, .a "knife is valso shown, although the mounting means for the knife does not constitute a part of the present invention. The mounting .meansfor the knife consists in providing in the card horizontal blade receiving slots 22, 23 and 24 and a pair of spaced substantially vertical handle-receiving slots 25-25 joined at their upper ends to the slot 24 to define therewith a tab portion 26.

What is claimed is:

1. A card for holding and displaying a spoon, fork or similar article having a head and a handle connected by a neck, and wherein said head and handle lie at opposite sides of :a fiat plane and said neck traverses said .plane, said card comprising a planular panel having a longitudinal dimension greater than the length of said article for receiving said article along a longitudinal line between its ends, and having a neck receiving slot at an intermediate point of said line, a head receiving portion longitudinally at one side of said slot and a handle receiving portion longitudinally at the other side of said slot, said slot adapted to permit passage of said handle .therethrough tirom the rear to the front of said card to engage said neck therein and to bring said handle into engagement with the forward side of said handle receiving :portion, and said head receiving portion having a 1U-shaped cut substantially conforming to the outline shape of the head of said article and centrally aligned with said longitudinal line with its closed end adjacent to and longitudinally spaced from said slot, the portion .of said card between said slot and said out being unbroken to provide a neck holding band, said out defining a. tab bendable from the plane of said card to its rearside about a transverse 'hi-ngle line extending across the open end of said cut for supporting engagement with the rearward-side of the head ofsaid article with the forward side of said head received and displayed in the opening defined by said cut upon said bending of said tab.

2. The card as defined in claim 1, wherein said slot is of T-form with the stern of the T aligned with said longitudinal line and with the top of the T adjacent said U shaped cut.

3. In combination, a spoon, fork or similar article having a head and a handle connected by a neck, and wherein said head and handle lie at opposite sides of a flat plane and said neck traverses said .plane, a card for holding and displaying said article comprising a planular panel having a longitudinal dimension greater than the length of said article for receiving said article along a longitudinal line between its ends, and having a neck receiving slot at an intermediate point of said line, a head receiving portion longitudinally at one side of said slot and a handle receiving portion longitudinally at the other side of said slot, sa-id slot adapted to permit passage of said handle therethrough from the rear to the front of said card to engage said neck therein and to bring said handle into engagement with the forward side of said handle receiving portion, and said head receiving :portion having a U-shaped cut substantially conforming to outline shape of-the head of said article and centrally aligned with said longitudinal line with its closed end adjacent to and longitudinally spaced from said slot, said cut defining a tab bend-able from the plane of said card to its rearward side about a transverse hinge line extending across the open-end of said out for supporting engagement with the rearward side of the head of said article with the, forward side of said head received and displayed in the opening defined by said U-shapedcut upon said bending of said tab.

4. The card as defined in claim 3, wherein said slot is of T-form with the stem of the T aligned with said longitudinal line and with the top of the T .adjacent said U-shaped cut, the length of said stem being at least equal to the maximum transverse width of said handle and the width of said top being at least equal to the transverse widthof said neck.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,813,085 Warner Aug. 23, 1932 11,966,662 Downs et a1 July 17, 1934 2,160,203 Gamble May 30, 1939 12,224,027 Tate Dec. 3, 1 940 FOREIGN PATENTS 540,280 Great Britain on. 10, @1940 

